All combat must be done with the approval and presence of a Storyteller. The scene is frozen until a Storyteller can be found.

Combat Order

Declare combat (and get an ST)

Spend blood

Roll for initiative (!inits)

Declare actions and roll by in order of highest initiative

On Sanguinus, the Storyteller has the option to determine initiative only once per combat. Inits are rolled at the very beginning of combat, and that order holds for the rest of the combat. Anyone who enters combat late rolls inits once and are added to the proper place in the turn order. This is usually done in exceptionally large and complicated scenes.

An attack is resolved in this order:

Attacker rolls to hit

Target decides to use his action to dodge or simply soak

If attack hits, roll damage

Target rolls to soak damage

Fights to the Submission

Sometimes, characters will fight not for their lives, but just for dominance or honor. Remaining in a fight you can end easily at any time relies on your will to fight, or your character's willpower.

You must start rolling to fight through the pain and keep going once you've taken half your willpower in damage, rounding up, e.g. a character with 7 willpower would have to start after taking 4 or more health levels of damage, and at the end of each round you take damage after that.

The difficulty of the willpower roll is the amount of damage you've taken + 2. So, if you took 4 levels of damage, you roll against a difficulty of 6.

Fail this roll? Your character submits. He says back off. He says 'Okay, okay!' and steps off. He throws in the proverbial towel. He sits down and shuts up. Whatever counts for stopping the combat.

If your foe continues to attack, you can respond normally and continue fighting. Also, you no longer have to roll. Your foe has revealed themselves not to be playing by the rules you thought you were.

Spending Willpower in Combat

Spending willpower is limited in combat to situations where sheer will and effort would allow for a guaranteed success. Willpower spends are always at the Storyteller's discretion. While willpower can be spent during Celerity rounds, only one willpower total can ever be spent during a round. You cannot spend willpower to overcome adverse environmental factors - such as total darkness, a Lasombra Shroud of Night or extreme distances.

Healing during combat

Healing during combat is possible by declaring your intention before the combat round starts, and rolling stamina+survival diff 8 (no wp). Successes indicate the number of bp you can heal with (gen max still applies though), failure means you lose the bp, and a botch means you lose the bp, an additional bp and suffer an extra health level of damage.